Thoughts in a few paragraphs…

Cerezo Osaka won the first ACL game of the season against K-League side Jeju United FC with an injury-time goal from Kota Mizunuma today. There is a phrase recently used broadly in Japan, someone “has something,” when we describe a person who is so lucky that he or she achieves something very special (this usage of words probably originated in the world of sports). In that sense, Mizunuma surely “has something.”

Overall, Cerezo played relatively better, especially in the early part of the first half, in which they possessed the ball about 70%. But their performance wasn’t quite good, especially in the final third. After all, this was the first international match for most players, taken place in a different environment. Those “differences” include, according to what Yang Dong-Hyun told the official website ahead of the game, the condition of grass, the weather, and the number of spectators. Yoon and the club were thoughtful enough to decide to land early in Jeju to overcome some of those differences. The manager insisted they were already accustomed to it, at least to the weather, but those differences might have some impact on their performance. We can also add the opponents’ roughness and unstable refereeing to the list of differences.

Surely Mizunuma’s injury-time winner contained an element of luck, but it was created because Mizunuma didn’t give up and ran, believing something can happen when other player fires a shot inside the box, as he told after the game. Someone can be described to “have something” when he or she achieves something special, but unquestionably that achievement is in fact based on his or her enormous efforts.

Lucky or not, Cerezo earned three points and stood at the top of Group G thanks to his goal. This is a big thing for Cerezo who will face Chinese champions Guangzhou Evergrande one week later.